


Keep My Heart Slow

by Quinnoid



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Canon Asexual Character, Canon setting vampire AU, Cel can curse as a treat, Discussions of Vampire Biology, Explicit Language, Gen, Medical Examination, Non-Consensual Medical Experimentation, Unethical Experimentation, Vampire!Zolf, tags for future chapters include:
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:27:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27264232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quinnoid/pseuds/Quinnoid
Summary: Zolf gets turned into a vampire and shows up on Cel and Jasper's doorstep for help.
Relationships: Celiquillithon "Cel" Sidebottom & Zolf Smith, Jasper & Celiquillithon "Cel" Sidebottom
Comments: 20
Kudos: 16





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I definitely know how to take a break :facepalm:
> 
> Canon setting, Vampire AU, because I've been sideeyeing all the vampire (especially vampire!Cel) fics and thinking.. god I want vampire Zolf. So have vampire Zolf.
> 
> Title from I Will Wait ~ Mumford & Sons.
> 
> Also, Cel and Jasper (and by extension, the actual story) refer to Zolf with neutral pronouns until told otherwise.

Cel and Jasper were up late the night the dwarf showed up on their doorstep. Jasper had come up with a thrilling idea for the tank stuck in the swamp. He wanted to transform it from a land tank to a land and water tank so it wouldn’t get stuck again. He nicknamed it the Amphibiotic Tank. They had been drawing up plans and working out all the little details when someone pounded on the door. Jasper jumped, and Cel raised their eyebrow. It was pretty late for a visitor, but they were an apothecary. Sometimes there were emergencies late at night. Carefully, they stood up, stepped over a few contraptions, and opened the door. 

Standing in the archway was a pallid, shaking dwarf leaning heavily on a trident. They muttered something about needing help, but Cel didn’t really hear it. They were too focused on two bleeding punctures on their neck, and the sickly pallor that was spreading from them. As Cel reached out to help them inside, their eyes rolled back and they began to collapse.

“Oh! Fuck!” Cel yelped and lunged to catch them. The dwarf slid through their hands and landed on the ground with a solid  _ thunk. _ “Jasper! I need help!”

“C-coming!” Jasper darted over and helped them carry the dwarf inside. Cel cleared the table they had been working on with a swipe of their hand, and together they heaved the dwarf onto it. Thankfully it was a low table. Cel pursed their lips and took a breath before whirling around.

“Jasper I need you to do everything I say and trust me alright?” Jasper nodded. “I need you to help me strap them down. And then.. Do we still have that pig blood from the transmutation experiments? If so, I need it. And I need a needle and.. Oh gosh, whatever we have for drawing and giving blood.”

“What! You think-”

“Jasper! Now!” Cel cut him off and quickly started to tie down the dwarf’s arms. Jasper worked on their legs. “I’m very sorry buddy, precautions, you know? Alright, alright. It’s been a while.. You can do this. Okay. Shoin’s notes are.. Agh they were burned! Right. Okay. Do the exam, determine if you can even save them.”

Jasper ran upstairs to collect what Cel had asked for while they examined the dwarf. They were average for a dwarf, in weight and height, although that would probably change soon. Judging by the steadily spreading pallor and coolness, it looked like it was already too late to stop the transformation, but if they could just remove and transfuse enough..

“We never tested it on dwarves!” Cel spun around suddenly, hands flying into their hair and digging into their scalp. “Oh they have such a different constitution.. I-if the- if the blood is different- and if he’s not a magic user- That would.. That would be..” They growled in frustration and turned back to the dwarf helplessly. The room grew blurry as tears welled up in Cel’s eyes and their shoulders sagged in defeat. “I’m so sorry. I-I can’t help you.”

Jasper came back down a moment later with five jars of frozen pig blood and the kit for drawing blood. 

“Thanks buddy. But I can’t help them.” They sighed. “If I try, I’ll probably kill them.”

“But isn’t that better?”

“No. Better a vampire than dead Jasper.” Cel knelt down to hug the trembling gnome. He threw his arms around their neck. “We’ll send them on their way once they feed. I promise.”

“But what if they hurt people? We can’t let them do that. We can’t.. I can’t.”

“I know.” Cel hugged him tighter. “Right. How about this? We’ll assess the situation when they wake up. If they try to kill us, or make it seem like they’re gonna kill someone else once they leave, you know what to do. But I  _ can’t _ kill them without giving them a chance. I.. owe them that much.”

“Okay.” Jasper murmured. Cel let him go and began to prepare the dwarf’s first meal as a vampire.

~~***~~

Of course, the dwarf woke up before Cel was ready to feed them. Thawing and reactivating the blood took way longer than they expected, especially without Shoin’s old notes. Cel was just finishing up in the lab when they heard a choked off snarl and a yelp.

“Jasper!” They yelled as they chugged a mutagen potion and ran downstairs as fast as they could. 

“I’m okay, I’m okay!” 

Cel burst through the door with claws and fangs ready to find the dwarf still restrained and looking around wildly. Jasper immediately ran behind them, holding his own mutagen potion ready. When the dwarf’s eyes landed on Cel, their already pale face went utterly white and their eyes went wide. “Poseidon help me.” They muttered, fist clenching as if to cast a spell.

Cel frowned as best they could around the long fangs. “I don’t recommend casting magic right now, buddy.” They started, growling a bit when their voice was altered by the fangs and strangely hairy tongue that seemed to come with this particular mutagen. “My name’s Cel, uh, they / them please. What’s your name? And pronouns?”

“Z-Zolf. Zolf Smith. Uh, he? What’s going on? Why am I tied- why can’t I cast spells? Oh gods he’s mad again-” Zolf thrashed against the binds and grimaced when it pulled at his neck.

“Mr. Smith, you need to calm down!” Zolf froze. Cel could see that they- that he had torn open the punctures on his neck and they were slowly starting to ooze blood. “Look Mr. Smith. I-I have some good news and bad news, but I need two minutes please. I swear, I will explain everything momentarily.”

“The hell do you mean?” He glowered at them for a second, then sniffed. Jasper stepped out from behind Cel.

“M-mr. Smith? M-m-my name’s Jasper.” He took a deep breath as Zolf looked at him. Cel could see the pupil in that eye had already started to elongate. It was an eerie look they’d never quite gotten used to. “Do you remember what happened? Why you’re here?”

Zolf was still and silent for so long that he forgot to breathe. “I was.. Attacked. And whoever it was brought me here.”

Cel tried very, very hard not to immediately start panicking. They were mostly successful. “Mr. Smith? I need to borrow Jasper for just a minute.”

“Wait! Wait I’m still tied up!” Cel ignored his yelling as they climbed back upstairs, Jasper in tow. They grabbed an antidote from a bench and chugged it, waiting for a moment as the sensation of hair retracting on their tongue subsided.

“I-I didn’t do anything I swear!” Jasper said. “I haven’t been going out or anything!”

“Okay. I believe you.” They patted his head absently. “Okay. Okay. This is.. This is probably not good. A vampire  _ knows _ where we are, and dropped off one of their victims? That they turned? This.. This doesn’t make any sense. Why would they..” 

“It’s a test.” Jasper looked up at them. There was a strange look in his eyes. “Isn’t it.”

“I.. maybe. It might be. Or it might be that they didn’t mean to, maybe, maybe the vampire lost control and were hoping the local apothecary would be able to help!” Even as they said it, Cel knew how unlikely that was. They slumped down on a stool, head in their hands. “You want to go looking for the vampire, don’t you?” 

Jasper nodded, and they sighed. “I can do it Cel. It won’t be like last time.” He jumped up and hugged them. “I’ll be alright. I’ve got alchemy now.”

  
A thought tickled the back of Cel’s mind, but it was abandoned when all of a sudden, Zolf  _ roared. _


	2. Chapter 2

There were a few things scarier than having a starving fledgling vampire loose in Cel’s apothecary. The drunken man who’d tried to split them open when they helped his partner and children escape was one of them. Working for Shoin was another. And Zolf looked bad. He was pale and trembling with hunger and restraint. His wrists were burnt and raw from where he’d ripped through the ropes. And of course, his body had chosen that exact moment to try to start growing ever so slightly, which meant that his vampiric strength had started to emerge as well. In hindsight, leaving him alone downstairs had definitely been a mistake. 

Zolf snarled at them, and Cel could see the tips of newly grown fangs poking out. They weren’t quite long enough to be useful yet, but their presence meant he was probably past saving now. 

“What’s wrong with me Cel?” He growled, chest heaving with unnecessary breaths. “Why.. I want to.. I need to bite you? What the hell! I don’t-”

Cel palmed another mutagen potion, although they weren’t certain they’d be able to take it before he pounced. “Mr. Smith, please, try to stay calm. I promise, I’m trying to help you.”

“I don’t want to hurt you!” He yelled, whirling away and stalking towards the door. 

“Mr. Smith! Stop!” They waited for a moment. Zolf stopped and turned back towards them, still shaking. “I can- We can help you. But Jasper needs another minute. You just need to eat and then you’ll be okay.”

Zolf looked like he was straining against some invisible force. His neck was so tense that he’d opened up the bite wound  _ again _ , and seemingly unconsciously, he brought his fingers up to trace the path of blood dripping down his neck. 

“Do you know what’s happened to you?” Zolf shook his head, staring at his fingers. “Okay. Alright. I-” Jasper bounded downstairs with two cups, cutting them off.

“Sorry M-mr. Smith! Here, this will, this will help.” He set the cups down on the table and backed up. Zolf sniffed his fingers, and his nose wrinkled in disgust, though his eyes told a different story. He looked up at Cel, licked his lips once, and lunged for the cups. Jasper turned away and gestured at Cel and then the kitchen. They nodded, and he went off to make some tea. Hopefully something with lavender. They knew he didn’t like seeing this side of vampires very much, and he really needed to sleep. They needed to sleep too.

Zolf didn’t look much better when he finished his meal. He would need way more before his change was finished, but that was all they had on hand until the morning. He stared at them, that hauntingly hungry gaze boring into them. 

“What’s wrong with me?” He asked. His voice was a bit smoother now, less growly and more.. Satisfied. Maybe it had been enough to tide him over. Cel sat down on a chair and gestured for Zolf to do the same. He didn’t. 

“Do you want the long answer or the short one?”

He thought for a minute. “Long.”

“Right.” They sighed. “Mr. Smith, you’ve been turned into a vampire. There are two ways to do it that I know of. The first is getting a certain amount of blood from another vampire mixed with yours. Since there’s evidence of one feeding on you, it’s safe to assume that’s the way you were turned. The second is.. Well, it’s not really important." Zolf looked like they were going to argue that point, but Cel surged forward. "As you finish the change, your body is going to make some.. Adjustments. You will most likely grow taller, though not by much, stronger, and your fangs should fully establish themselves soon. I-I believe you’ll be able to grow claws at will? And uhm, as you.. As you change, your major abdominal organs will become.. Mostly obsolete and stop functioning. You uh, you won’t be able to eat normal food, so you won’t have.. Certain bodily functions to perform. Although, sex is-”

“Not important.” Zolf cut them off. 

“Okay. Uhm. Right. Uhm.. You were a cleric, right? Of Poseidon?” Zolf nodded. “In all likelihood, you can’t use magic because he cut ties with you. I-I’m sorry.”

Zolf grunted. “No loss.”

“It.. it also means that when you die.. You won’t enjoy what comes after Mr. Smith.” Cel fiddled with a broken mechanism. 

“How do you fix it? I can pay, whatever you need. Just, fix me.”

“I.. I can’t. Well, I might, but I’ve never worked with a dwarven vampire before and.. When I was studying vampires.. Once they got to this stage we- I could never turn them back. You reached it faster than, than most of the ones we studied, so there could be other ways you're different, but I’m not sure.” 

Jasper came back out with two cups of tea. He handed one to Cel and took the other back up to the lab, probably to stock up on supplies before he left, even though he knew they didn’t like drinks in the lab. Zolf was quiet for a long time, long enough for their tea to cool enough for them to drink most of it. 

“Then study me. And if you can’t fix me, kill me.”

“Mr. Smith! I-”

“I wanted to kill you earlier. I was going to kill you and- and- and bite you? It’s a bit fuzzy. But I don’t  _ want _ that. I’m a bloody pirate, not a.. Vampire.” He said it weird, the word seeming to twist a little. 

“If that’s what you want, Mr. Smith, but.. I hope you’ll reconsider if I fail.” Cel sighed. This conversation had not gone the way they’d hoped. Or it had, it just included some unsavory additions. “We’ll start in the morning after you’ve eaten.”

“Right.”

“I’d appreciate it if you stayed with me as well. Precautions.” Zolf nodded, and they took a deep breath. “Okay. Alright. Jasper will be leaving in the morning for a while. You’ll stay with me tonight, and then you can probably borrow his room. I’ll check.. Although you really won’t need to sleep much so.. If you don’t have a hobby, I suggest picking one up. Or- or not, sorry, I don’t mean to.. Yeah.”

“Are the legends about vampires true?”

“Legends?”

“Yeah. Can’t go out in the sun, turn into bats, no garlic, all that?” 

“Oh!” Cel smiled, happy that they could give him  _ some _ useful information. “Actually.. I do have the answer for that. See, drows were the first to become vampires, but they are naturally sensitive to light. Most can’t even emerge from underground, but a few of the less sensitive ones came above ground. They can’t turn into bats, though a dedicated alchemist with the right mutagen can, like I did earlier. And I’m not sure about the garlic. Anyway, one of them was infected, and from there, vampirism spread, but drows were the only ones the light ever affected. And it’s actually rare because usually victims of vampire attacks don’t survive. You were.. Well lucky I guess.”

Zolf laughed bitterly. “Yeah. Lucky. I’m a bloody vampire Cel.”

They frowned. “I’m sorry, Mr. Smith.”

“Just Zolf.”

“Right. I’m sorry, Zolf. I.. cut ties with my research partner a long time ago and honestly, I was never intending on finishing what I- we started. If I study you, in all likelihood I.. It’s going to hurt. I won’t be able to help that. And I am almost certain I won’t be able to turn you back.”

“Almost certain. Not totally certain. Which means there’s a chance, yeah?”

“There’s always a chance Mr. Smith- Zolf.  _ Always. _ ”

“Right. I’ll.. if you take me to a bank, I can pay you. I will pay you. And I can cook and clean. Whatever.. Whatever you need. Just.. please try.” He looked them dead in the eyes again, and instead of that hunger, there was a painfully hopeful spark in them.

“Of course. We can- we can talk about this in the morning alright? I need sleep and.. I’m going to trust you Mr. Zolf. I won’t restrain you. But if you attack me, I can and will kill you. Same goes for Jasper.” They hoped he didn’t realize how much they were lying.

“I won’t. I promise.” Cel noded and chewed on their lip again. Jasper was going to be pissed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Folks. I spent So Much Time thinking about vampire biology. There was so much to consider? So much.


	3. Chapter 3

“A-are you serious Cel? You’re planning on staying  _ by yourself _ with that.. With him?”

“Jasper.” Cel warned. “They’re still people. And so is Zolf.”

He glared down at the floor. “How can you trust him? How can you- you know what they do! You know what they’ve done!”

“And he hasn’t done any of those things. He was turned last night. He’s not going to be a fully fledged vampire for.. A month? I’m not quite sure with dwarves, but it’s likely close to humans, so-” They were cut off by Jasper stamping his foot. 

“Cel! This is serious! It’s not an experiment anymore! If you.. If you get hurt or, or die, I.. I don’t know what I’ll do. I can't lose you too.” He sniffled.

“Jasper..” Cel knelt down and held their arms out. When he didn’t immediately respond, they frowned. “I know this isn’t an experiment. It’s life or death, especially for him. Look if I can’t turn him back, he told me to kill him.” Jasper’s eyes flicked up to theirs for a moment. “I need a month. That’s all. If you want to wait to find the other one and stay-”

Jasper gave them a tight hug. “N-no I can’t. I.. I trust you Cel. You’ll keep.. Keep safe. And I’ll be back. Soon. I love you Cel. Don’t do anything stupid please.”

They chuckled. “I love you too, lil buddy. I won’t. Same to you alright? Stay in touch. I know.. I know you’ve done this before but if it’s anything like at Shoin’s.. I won’t be there to protect you.”

“I will. A-and I won’t be here to protect you. So, we’re even.” He smiled into their shoulder before pulling away.

“When were you the one to protect me, huh?” Cel ruffled his hair.

“Cel,” Jasper whined. “Don’t do that, it messes it up.”

Cel patted his shoulder and stood up to see Zolf looking in from just outside the doorway. There’s an unreadable look on his face. “Oh! Zolf! Are you ready to get started?”   
  


“Actually, I made breakfast if uh, if you want it.” He shrugged. “If not, ‘s fine.”

“Ah! That sounds lovely. Jasper?”

“I-I’ve gotta get going soon. Have an idea on where to start and- well, I don’t want to lose the trail.” Cel raised an eyebrow at him but nodded. “You can stay in my room Mr. Smith. If you want.” Jasper gave him a jerky nod, gave Cel a big hug, and ran off.

“Alright.” Cel followed Zolf to the kitchen, where he’d cleared away a sliver of countertop. There were two plates sitting on top of it, but he quickly cleared one away. “Have you.. Are you already unable to eat?” 

“Oh uh. I don’t know. I’m still kinda.. Full from.. Earlier.” He mumbled. “What'd you give me?”

“Pig blood. Which speaking of, you wiped out my supply. I’ll go to the butcher’s after this. They’re a friend, so she probably won’t ask too many questions..” Cel trailed off. “Oh! I’m also going to get you a notebook. I’m going to be taking my own notes and samples of course, but I would like you to keep a record of the changes you notice as well. I already wrote out most of what I observed last night, but if you have anything to add, please do.”

They pushed their notebook at him, and he scanned over it while they inhaled their breakfast. The bit they actually tasted was delicious. 

“That all looks about right. But uh, I remembered a bit more of who attacked me. I know your friend’s planning on going after him and.. Look I don’t know if he should.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Some Japanese bloke. Tall as you, but human I think. Or was. He said something but.. I’m not sure.. He said it was important but I can’t remember it.”

“Huh. That’s new. All of the test subjects remembered.. But is it because you’re a dwarf? Or..” Cel trailed off as their mind worked overtime trying to piece it together. Something was very wrong with the whole situation, but they couldn’t put their finger on it. They shook their head. “Right. Go tell Jasper what you told me, and then we’ll go to the butchers. Well, actually, I’ll go to the butchers. I can’t.. I can’t let you come out yet.”

“Yeah.. yeah that’s, that’s fine.” Zolf said. 

~~***~~

Cel got back from the butchers to find the kitchen spotless. All of their gadgets and half-finished projects had been tidied, all of the loose papers and plans had been filed away, and everything left had been organized. Zolf was standing over the sink, washing vegetables and whistling something vaguely reminiscent of a sea shanty. 

“Mr.- Zolf! It looks great in here!” Zolf jumped and looked behind him. 

“Cel. Hi. You uh, you don’t mind me doing this right? I woulda just sat but.. I wanted to clean up after breakfast and then I sorta just kept cleaning.”

“No! No, of course not! But please don’t think you have to do this for me to help you. I.. Look, Zolf, I have..” They sighed, debating just how much to say. “I have debts to pay, right? Debts to.. To karma, or the universe, or the gods, or whatever you believe in. I will do my best to help you, whether you pay me or not.”

Zolf grunted. “Fair enough. Still gonna pay you. And you told me to find a hobby.”

Cel breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay. Well, thank you, Zolf. Have, uh, have you gotten taller by any chance?”

“Oh. Uh, I think so? I keep scraping my hands and bumping into things.”

“Aha! Come with me then!” Cel dragged him up to the lab and had him sit. They grabbed a stethoscope and were getting ready to just do a standard physical when the exam they did with Shoin came back to them in an instant. Measure height and weight. Take all vital signs, listen for intestinal sounds, examine fingers, toes, and ears. Check and measure fangs, taking X-rays to see more accurate development if needed. Check gums. Take temperature and pallor. Record all data and compare to previous collections. Take blood, skin, hair, and a few other necessary samples. Test the samples, record all data, and move to the next subject. It'd been at least fifteen years since they'd last done that exam. Maybe even longer. Had it really been that long ago?

“Cel? Cel?” Zolf’s voice cut through their thoughts and they realized they’d frozen in front of him, stethoscope halfway to his chest. 

“S-sorry Mr. Smith. Don’t mind me.” Cel took a steadying breath and began listening and scribbling notes. Heartrate: 48, respiratory rate: 5 when he remembered to breathe, intestinal sounds: minimal on the right, normal compared to a human’s on the left. His fingers and toes showed no signs of claw formation, and his ears were still rounded and flat against his head. The fangs they’d seen earlier had retracted completely for the time being, but his gums were still pink and moist, although they had cooled significantly. Temperature: 20℃, still on the high side. His skin was pale, but more like he was underground for a few years rather than a recently turned vampire.

All in all, mostly standard for the halfway point of a transition, which he really shouldn’t have been at already, even if dwarves succumbed to it quickly. Cel jotted that down. They’d only seen it a few times, when the body just had no defenses against the turn. The whole time, Zolf was stiff, tolerating the poking and prodding but definitely not comfortable with it. He sighed when they were finished. 

“I tried to see if I could cast anything.” He mumbled. 

“Oh?" Cel perked up. "And?”

“Nothing. He’s just.. Gone.” Zolf sighed. “And I tried to heal myself but.. It just hurt more.”

“Oh! Oh no please, don’t try to heal yourself you'll- hold on, you could heal? How? What’d you do?”

“Wait, why can’t I try to heal?”

Cel nibbled on their lip. “Tell me about what you did and how it felt first.”

“Oh. Okay. I think they call it channel energy? I never really spent much time in the temples, so I don’t know what all the magic stuff’s called. Just that if I focus real hard on a good feeling, it’ll heal me and the people around me.” He paused, but Cel raised their eyebrows and he continued. “It hurt. Like I got bit all over again, but harder, and like my blood had started boiling.”

“I see.” Cel wrote down everything he said. When they finished, they sat down next to him. “Right. I probably.. I owe you a bit of an explanation. What do you know about the school of magic called necromancy?”

“What?”

“Ah. Well, wizards and sorcerers have a different kind of magic than clerics and paladins. They’ve standardized it some, and divided all the different spells into schools. Necromancy is sort of a forbidden-ish school? I think they teach it in Prague, but it’s definitely frowned upon. While I was researching with my.. Partner.. We uh, we discovered that vampires fall under that school of magic. We’re pretty certain vampires are a type of undead creature actually, based on.. Well.” They huffed out a breath and changed course. “Healing spells hurt, but wounding spells heal, and the like. It’s actually quite fascinating but.. Suffice it to say, you shouldn’t heal yourself anymore. Not like that anyway. I’m impressed you were able to channel positive energy at all. Poseidon might still be with you, which is a much bigger breakthrough!” Cel flipped their notebook to a new page. “Tell me everything!”

“He’s not.” Zolf said flatly. Cel’s brow furrowed. “When I first sorta.. What accepted him? Or whatever. I always had this.. This feeling, this presence. Like the tide holding itself back for me, but inside my chest. I don’t know, it never really made sense. He never really made sense. But that sensation is gone.”

“Oh. Alright. If you don’t mind, I would love to hear more about Poseidon someday. But uh, is there something else in his place by any chance? A new presence?”

“No.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “There’s no one there.” 

“You know, it doesn’t need to be a deity. Divine magic can also come from feelings, things, ideas.. If it exists in a plane, it can be considered divine, and you can be a cleric of it. It's incredibly uncommon, because why not just worship a god, right? I've really only heard that it's possible, I don't think I've ever met anyone who.. worships? Worships probably isn't the right word, but, ah, you get my point, sorry.”

“It can be a feeling?” He asked, nibbling at his lip. Cel nodded. “Maybe.. Maybe hope.”

Cel blinked, and their heart broke a little bit. They knew next to nothing about him, but if they were right, hope was about all he had left. It really said something about him that he believed in a stranger so much he was still able to use magic.

“That’s good Zolf! I’m- I can hardly believe you can do that! In all of my studies we never had anyone else who was able to do that.” They grinned, fakely, but hopefully it was concealed enough.

“You keep mentioning these studies you did. Mind telling me about ‘em? Could help me focus on things you need to figure out how to fix this.” 

“Oh uhm, I.. I-I don’t think that’s a good idea.” They mumbled. He started to stumble through an apology when they stood up suddenly. “I need to take some samples. You can go once I’ve gotten them.”

Zolf looked like he wanted to argue, an expression they were pretty certain they were going to see a lot more of on him. Instead, he sat still while they drew blood and took hair and skin samples. When they were finished, he went downstairs stiffly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heads up folks, future chapters have taken a rather sensitive direction. Tags and rating updated to reflect that. I'm on the fence for continuing this now because of said direction. I don't know if I can do it right, you know? And also because the One Scene I was hyped to write now doesn't fit the tone at all so :shrugs: We'll see.
> 
> I am working on that scene though, so I may just separate that and make it it's own little one shot (bc I'm still v hyped about it)

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be honest, there's a very specific scene I want to get to in this fic, so I actually might finish this one in a timely fashion. And there's plot. Lot's of plot. I've got a chunk of it already written, just not cleaned up yet, so the first few updates are hopefully going to be fast.


End file.
